HWN #3

Back home from another long but fun weekend in the midwest. Tired as all you know what. Already went over Minnesota so want to talk about Omaha and Cedar Falls.

Omaha was a good stop for the HWN tour. There was probably around 4000 people at the event. Nicole won the women's event and I won the men's event. The women played an extra match as Rachel, the libero for the Cornhuskers, played a 2 on 2 exhibition with them. She played with Nicole and lost to Jenny Kropp and Jen Boss 16-14. Rachel also played the 4 person game with us. She is a good player. Great ball control as you would expect from a libero for one of the best teams in the country. In the 4x4 she passed and played great defense as the guys hit and blocked. My team was Tyra, Anthony and Rachel. Nicole's team was Stein, Matt, and Jenny Kropp. My team was down most of the game. We had a match point against us at 20-19 but Stein hit a quick set out by a foot to send it into overtime. After a couple of sideouts we pulled out the victory 24-22. Pretty exciting match.

The bus ride that night started at 11:30pm and we got into Cedar Falls at 4am. Long bus ride and hardly anyone slept. The buses are sleeper buses and really cool but it is just hard to sleep on a moving bus. Slept till 11am and then had to do an appearance and have lunch at a restaurant. That night Hans Stolfus flew in to play and Anthony Medel stepped out. The women's match was won by Jenny Kropp again. Hans was fired up to play and won all the men's matches. In the 4 x 4 game the women hit and blocked. Kropp's team was Stein, Jen Boss, and myself. Hans had Tyra, Nicole and Matt. Kropp's team lost 21-16 so Hans was the grand champion. Cedar Falls was a good stop as there was close to 3000 people there and they were into it.

That night we jumped back onto the bus for a 2 hour ride to Des Moines as we were flying out of there rather than Cedar Falls. We got in a little after 1am. I had to get up at 6:30 to catch an 8am flight home. Flight went great and I got home at 1pm in plenty of time to go to the store and fire up the BBQ for the superbowl. My brother in law and his two kids came over and we Q'd and watched the game. They are all huge Steeler fans so we were all happy when the Steelers pulled it out with 35 second left. Great ending to that game.

Fortunately now I get a week off from the HWN before going to Portland and Salt Lake City the following week.